Andhra Pradesh's excise revenues for 2003-04 showed only a marginal increase of Rs 22 crore over the previous year. Against the annual target of Rs 2,211 crore for the year ended March 31, 2004, the state government could collect only Rs 1,907 crore. Excise revenue for 2002-03 was about Rs 1,885 crore. | |
| Though beer sales went up by over six lakh cases, sales of Indian-made liquor (IML) remained almost stagnant. IML sales stood at 2,28,20,151 cases as compared with 2,28,15,230 cases in 2002-03. |
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| In fact, the 'O' category (cheap liquor) sales have actually come down from 1,22,01,125 cases in 2002-03 to 17,22,223 cases this year. But there has been a considerable increase in A-category (next to cheap liquor) with sales of 77,87,064 cases as compared with 73,86,215 cases in the previous financial year. |
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| The August tragedy that involved a couple of deaths due to consumption of spurious liquor has led to the imposition of restrictions at ground level like closing down of unauthorised retail outlets in rural areas. |
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